Ultra-Orthodox Internet

In the future, the great internet rally of 2012 might be seen as the prescient start of a global movement to grapple with the impact of this amazing and beguiling series of tubes: addiction, distraction, stupidity, the erosion of privacy and intimacy have already been identified as some of the web’s deleterious effects. But to the 50,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews who came to New York’s Ci...

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In the future, the great internet rally of 2012 might be seen as the prescient start of a global movement to grapple with the impact of this amazing and beguiling series of tubes: addiction, distraction, stupidity, the erosion of privacy and intimacy have already been identified as some of the web’s deleterious effects. But to the 50,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews who came to New York’s Citi Field last month on the urgings of their rabbis and yeshivas, the problem had a rare urgency. All these downsides make the Web un-kosher, and for a community steeped in piety and tradition–one in which television is already mostly prohibited–the internet is clearly a force to be wrestled with, or at least to kvetch about.